New York Senator Schumer is After Facebook

I’ve lived in upstate New York most of my life so I speak from experience when I say New York is a political disaster area controlled by special interests and powerful unions. Young people flee the state every year and we continue to lose jobs at an alarming rate. 

Thankfully New York Senator Charles Schumer has decided that the FTC needs to start policing what information social media sites like Facebook and Twitter can sell to other companies. 

Is it a slow week in Washington? Does the good senator have nothing better to do while real problems continue to drag the once great Empire State through the gutter? People who use Facebook and the like need to be educated about what information those sites are collecting and what is done with that information. Once again it seems like the government wants to step in and play the role of over-protective parent. Rather than hold users responsible for their own safety online, why not let the FTC handle it for us? That way we can brainlessly surf the internet safe from all the bad things out there. 

New York is a mess with job loss, a very unfriendly environment for small business, sky-high property taxes, and a government that seems to think that the state has a bottomless money pit somewhere in Albany. I wish Senator Schumer were as concerned about all the young people who are fleeing to other states. Or maybe he could help figure out a way to lower our outrageous property taxes. How about trying to give the state back to the people who live here and taking it away from the powerful unions and special interest groups that own Albany? 

Clearly something should be done about personal information being sold to companies on the internet, but it seems like a low priority issue compared to the very real threats the state faces. 

Because Senator Schumer has decided to take on such a small issue at a time when New York is on the brink of destruction, I’ll assume he has some motive other than protecting the public from Facebook. 

So thanks Senator Schumer. 

Am I ready for an Ipad?

Now that the Ipad has been out for a week, I think I want one. As I’ve said in previous posts I’m really not a fan of Apple, but the Ipad really excites me as a perfect device to have around the house for the family to use. 

Right now we have a desktop and a laptop. All my family does on the computer is check email, surf the internet, and watch an occasional youtube video. Nothing special. Our desktop is getting old and will need to be replaced sometime this year and now I’m really thinking I will replace it with an Ipad. From what I’ve read, it will do everything the family needs, and it will relieve me of the headaches of maintaining a Windows desktop. 

There are two things that make me hesitate with the Ipad: 

• apps: I get by with my Ipod touch using free apps and a few paid games. My tastes are pretty simple. Will the Ipad induce me to pay for lots of apps for the family, especially the kids. I’m afraid my $500 purchase will end up costing me $1000 or more when I start buying apps. It’s reasonable to think there will be a flood of amazing apps as developers get the hang of the Ipad. Could be a money pit.
• Itunes: I wish the Ipad (and my Ipod touch) could download and update itself without having to plug it into a computer with Itunes. I’ve owned an Android phone for a year and never plugged it into my pc, not once. Every update I need, including the Android system updates are downloaded directly on my phone. This annoying problem means I still have to maintain a pc of some kind so that I can keep my Ipad updated. Seems kind of silly.

Although I don’t hesitate to be an early adopter, maybe it better to wait with the Ipad. I wonder if some kind of camera will appear in it down the road. It would be awesome to do a skype-type phone call from an Ipad. 

I’ll have to think about it more – I imagine there will be an Ipad in my house sometime in 2010, but I think this time I will not be among the first into the pool. 

Ipad Invasion

Not surprisingly, the Ipad has monopolized the news for the past several days. I’m not the biggest Apple fan in the world, but I am in awe of their brand. How many other brands inspire customers to stand in line for hours (or days)? How many brands have customers that buy their next best thing simply because that company produced it, irregardless of the customers actual need for the product? I think it’s possible that Apple has the strongest brand on the planet. Off the top of my head I can’t think of another brand that inspires such rabid loyalty. 

As I’ve mentioned previously, I own an Ipod touch and I consider it to be the coolest gadget I’ve ever owned. That’s high praise from someone who played on the first Nintendo, owned the first VCR on the block, and listened to the first Walkman. That being said, I don’t feel compelled to run out and get an Ipad. I would like to, and if i had $500 burning a hole in my pocket I think I would. Unfortunately, I don’t feel like I need an Ipad, and I’m not willing to part with $500 for what would be a real luxury item (for me anyway). 

Not only do I not need an Ipad, I’m curious about other reports that are surfacing about possible Ipad ‘killers’. Of course most will be pretenders, but tonight I was reading about an Ipad killer that HP is working on that sounds a lot more appealing than the Ipad. Of course there aren’t any reliable reviews of it yet, but I’m hoping the Ipad is just the beginning of a new generation of computing devices. More information about the HP Slate can be found at:

 http://mashable.com/2010/04/05/hp-slate-price-specs/

Clearly the Iphone was a game-changer on many levels. I will be curious to see if the Ipad has the same effect. I’m sure it will play amazing games and early reports say it is super fast, but would it really be a competent replacement for a laptop? If not, it just becomes one more device to have laying around. As it is many people already have numerous devices taking up space from phones, to laptops, to Ipods to netbooks. Is there room in the average house for yet another specialty device? From the early sales reports, it looks like the answer might be yes. It will be fun to watch how the Ipad sells during 2010, especially as the Christmas season approaches. 

The Ipad is new and exciting, but I fear I’m going to hit Ipad information overload before the end of the week. It seems like every other tweet I see is Ipad-related. The tech talk shows and blogs are all filled with Ipad reviews and insights. It’s exciting, but the possibility of Ipad burnout is clearly visible. 

Digg launches their Android app – finally

I own an HTC G2 Android phone. Overall I have been pleased with it and it seems to be getting better every day as new apps are added to the marketplace. The Digg app is no exception. 

I visit Digg often and up until now I was forced to use the browser on my phone. To be honest, the Digg site doesn’t render terribly well on my phone, but it is useable and it’s not so bad that it makes me not want to visit. 

As soon as I saw the announcement that an Android app was being released today, I jumped on it and I am not disappointed. Many apps overpromise and undeliver, but not this one. Now Digg is easy to read and fits beautifully on my phone. And best of all, it fit exactly into my price range – free!

The app is missing some features, like not being able to save articles, and you can’t share articles on Facebook or Twitter. On the upside, you can read articles in landscape mode, which can make reading much easier. 

The biggest downside (if you want to call it that) to Android is that high quality apps like this one have been slow coming out. Of course this makes sense as developers have focused on the more popular Iphone, but it nice any time a company shows a little love to those of us willing to live on the fringe with Android phones. 

As Android phones grow in popularity, I hope more companies and developers will build quality apps that make the Android experience better. 

More information about this app can be found at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/AndroidAppsOnly/~3/acO9xGa_ZxY/digg-launches-android-app.html

Why aren’t there more videos in blogs?

As I visit various blogs around the internet, I notice that the vast majority are text. Given the ease with which one can post a video to the internet, I’m surprised more people don’t post blogs as videos. When I decided to try and establish a blog and some websites, the first thing I purchased was a flip cam. I was absolutely amazed that for $100, I could post a good looking video on the internet in almost no time and with almost no editing. I really believed that video was the best way to get a message across on the internet. 

But then it hit me, why wasn’t I seeing more videos on the internet?  Ironically, this thought came to me while I was listening to a video while surfing the net in another tab in my browser. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I don’t have the time or patience to sit and watch most videos. 

I listen to podcasts all the time and I listen to videos all the time, as long as I have something else to do.  I wonder if this is true for many people and that’s why most blogs and other sites are mostly textual?  Is the internet user attention span too short to sit and absorb a video? 

Although I apparently don’t have the attention span to watch a video, I think it’s a shame. I really like watching a video, or at least parts of it. I love to see a face behind a blog or a message. Many videos are creative and engaging and interesting to watch. Perhaps the key is to keep it short. I notice that I will watch a short video, maybe two minutes max. Beyond that, I will start to wander. 

These thoughts have given me pause about how to get my message out. Not only am I posting to this blog, I am also trying to start a bigger wellness related site with a friend. As we begin to populate our sites with content, I am conflicted about how best to present it. Video, text, audio? Perhaps a mixture of everything. Or perhaps I need to see how our community prefers to consume content.

I guess there are no hard and fast rules when producing quality content except to deliver quality and let the community dictate what form it takes. 

Blogs and the Giant Time Vacuum

For the past few months I’ve found several dozen blogs that I really following. Through a combination of bookmarking and RSS feeds, I check in frequently and read items that interest me. Mostly these are sites pertaining to personal development or financial information or life hacks. 

Lately I’ve begun to wonder if I am spending too much time on these blogs. Many of them contain similar information, often presented in a different way. There are very few that actually make me think long and hard about something. Is it possible I am reading all these blogs as a way to avoid doing something of my own? How many times can I see the same quotes analyzed to death in various personal development blogs? 

I swear, it’s almost like an addiction – like people who need a cup of coffee in the morning to get going. On a day when I miss a particular blog, I find myself thinking about what I may be missing even though I know in my mind that I’m not really missing anything at all. 

I know some people who are addicted to the Weather Channel. They have it on all the time as if they are afraid to miss some important weather event in their area. What if I stopped reading all these blogs today? What would I be missing?  Isn’t it possible that all the tools I need to develop myself fully are already in me? Will reading one more blog analyzing Einstein’s quotes will spawn a million dollar idea in my head? 

Perhaps it’s easier to read other people’s work than it is to produce my own. I’m trying to write a blog of my own at least every other day, but some nights I’m so tired and worn out  from reading all these other blogs, I feel like there’s nothing left to say about anything (of course I know that’s not true, it just feels that way). 

I have a smart phone where I get tweets and emails all day long. I also have internet access, so I can check in on my blogs during the day. I’m thinking it’s time to wean myself from this constant flow of information. I need more time to think for myself and to come up with my own ideas, rather than listening to everyone else’s. 

Ironically, I read a blog today where the author talked about trying to do something for 14 days. His theory is that anyone can do anything for two weeks and that two weeks is enough time to find out if you like or dislike something. So I am going to try and limit my blog reading for two weeks and see how I like it. If it doesn’t work, I will just start reading them again. If the two weeks allows me to be more productive, then maybe it will be something I keep for the long term.

Should be an interesting two weeks.

The Unknown Link

I love Twitter but I’ve become increasingly worried about the links that people send in their tweets. Most commonly, tweets contain a link that has been shortened using a service like bit.ly, which makes it possible to squeeze it into a tweet, but leaves the reader unable to tell where the link really goes. It is a huge leap of faith to click on that link, even if you are confident that the originator is trustworthy.

Twitter has had instances of accounts being hacked, so clearly there is a real possibility that you could get a tweet with a link that leads you to some kind of malicious site or undesirable content. 

By now, most of us know not to open email attachments from unknown or questionable sources and to be wary of clicking links in emails if we are uncertain where they lead. But lets face it, that doesn’t stop most people from clicking on things they should otherwise ignore or delete.

Personally, I mostly access Twitter from my android phone (HTC 2), so I am probe to simply clicking a link whenever I see one I want to explore. I know the risks and I try to be smart about it, but I know I am walking a dangerous line clicking on those links. 

I have heard there are sites that can decipher the shortened links and I know there are add-on’s for various browsers, but those don’t help much for those of us who use smart phones to access Twitter. 

Of course this issue brings up a great opportunity for someone to devise a clever and easy solution to help folks know where a shortened link goes before they click on it. I wish I had the technical skills (and time) to come up with a solution.

Where’s the Social in Social Media?

‘I’m at the mall with the family’. ‘Just had dinner at McDonalds’. 

How many times have you seen these kinds of tweets or facebook postings? While it can be interesting to see where friends are or what they are doing, it seems like there’s not always a lot of social in social media. Certainly there are some folks who really know how to start a conversation (and to keep it going). For everyone of the people who are good at getting the conversation going, it seems like there are ten more people who use social media to update friends on their location or their activities. 

When you tweet ‘I’m at Bob’s Diner’, why not tweet ‘I’m at Bob’s Diner on Main St, the meatloaf special is to die for!’. Or ‘Who’s been to Bob’s Diner – suggestions?’

When you are at the mall, how about ‘At the mall, HUGE sale at Sears  – get here now.’ 

Wouldn’t it be great to tweet or post something that starts a conversation or encourages feedback, or gets some kind of threads going amongst your followers? Hopefully social media is new to lots of people and it will take time to get the hang of it. I’m amazed at how many posts I see or tweets I get that are one-time-only affairs. What about tweets or posts that are the start of the conversation, rather than one and done posts. 

Social media gives us the tools to explore any number of topics in a way never imaginable just a few years ago. Imagine getting thoughts or opinions from hundreds or thousands of people. 

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy sharing a little bit of my friends lives and knowing what they are doing, but I would love to engage in a conversation about something and to know what they think or how they feel about a given topic. Perhaps it will just take time for people to get the hang of it.  Maybe people just need to keep posting stimulating thoughts and questions in the hopes that more people will join the conversation. 

More Thoughts About Legacy

Sites like Tumblr, WordPress, and others offer anyone who has a computer the opportunity to create a very unique and personal history. Presumably this history could exist for all time (obviously it won’t, but it’s fun to think of it that way). One reason I am trying to write a personal blog on a regular basis is to create such a history both for myself and my kids. I hate to write with paper and I doubt I could ever keep a traditional paper journal for long, but a personal blog seems to be interesting enough that I might stick with it. 

For Christmas this past year I registered my kids names as domain names. Thankfully they were all available. My oldest is only 9, but she is a very good writer for her age and loves to read. She has had her own email address on gmail for more than a year and she has become fluent dealing with email communications. For her in particular, I thought it would be fun for her to write some blogs from time to time. How fascinating will it be when she is 20 or 30 to look back at her thoughts at this age? 

Like generations past, my generation still relies on family stories and photos to better understand our history. We rely on our parents to tell stories of our childhood. I wonder if my children will be part of the leading edge generation that will have digital histories of their childhood and other family histories. When I think about it, I would love to see better pictures and blog posts from my grandparents or great grandparents. My grandparents have told me about Pearl Harbor, but it would have been so amazing to be able to read a blog from that day to know exactly what they were feeling and what was happening in our town and our country. I imagine there are many blog posts out there about the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. My daughter was born shortly after those attacks and really doesn’t know anything about them. When the time comes I hope to be able to use the internet to help paint a clear and accurate story for her that is very different from the way we are used to learning (mostly in textbooks or movies). 

So my thought here is simple. Blogging is simple, it’s free, and it may outlive you. Consider opening an account on Tumblr or WordPress and start creating your legacy online. If you are comfortable with it, think about having your kids start their own blog. Approach it as something fun and interesting. Try to make an entry once a week (or more). After a year or so, go back over your posts and look at how you felt about things or ponder all that has happened in your life in such a short time. Life seems to fly by at the speed of light and there are so many things that get overlooked or forgotten. Consider the possibility that family members that you will never meet will one day read your words. What would you say to them? What would you like them to know about you and their other family members? What would you like them to know about current events or other topics that interest you?  

Social Media Brings Many More Questions Than Answers

I saw two very interesting tweets today, both from the same person and both seemingly funny at first glance. One tweet mentioned the individual’s boss and how she was acting like a bi&*$. The other stated that this person had called in sick to work. First I laughed, then I got thinking and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that these two tweets bring up several questions.

• What if the boss sees these tweets? Being called names is not flattering and the possibility of an employee skipping out on work is equally troubling. 
• What kind of judgment does this person have?  I don’t know about their judgement, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are ignorant of the fact that their boss would have easy access to these tweets.
• What about the legacy this person is leaving behind?  Is this something to be proud of? Is this something they want their next (potential) employer to see? Is this something they would want their children or loved one’s to read?

Of course this is a workplace scenario, but as we are moving our thoughts and interactions into the social media space, we need to start thinking about how we are creating these open records of our lives. Not only are these records open, but they are potentially going to be available forever. It’s possible that you will be long dead and people will have access to information you have left behind online. 

People need to start thinking today about their online postings and interactions. While it may seem like a good idea at the moment, do you really want a potential employer looking at your tweets where you are bashing your current boss or coworkers? Would your current boss like to see messages like the ones I mention?

The internet is likely the most powerful tool ever created. With that great power comes great responsibility. Take some time and think about what you are doing online and what effect it can have on your job, your family, and your legacy.